I never really fully understood the timeline of this band. I know that I saw them for the first time on the Eulogy Mosh tour in 2004 along with Bury Your Dead, On Broken Wings and The Judas Cradle if memory serves me correctly. They played this EP in full and fucking brought it. They stayed at my house that night and had a line-up comprised of some pretty cool guys. We watched Boston Beatdown II because it had just came out. They gave me the low down on what all the footage was because they were from Boston. Funny.
They also stole one of my senior pictures and put it on a donation jug at their show the next night saying I had leukemia and needed donations. The show was in Erie and everyone knew me and genuinely thought I had came down with the disease. Kinda funny.
Not long after this show, the entire line-up quit except for one of the guys (can't remember who). They came back through and just didn't bring it like the old line-up did. My main piece of supporting evidence is the re-recorded version of Thick As Blood. It can not compare. The follow-up full length on Eulogy had its moments overall but didn't have any parts worth knocking off like this EP did.
Not much to say about this band as I am considerably unfamiliar with their history other than this EP. They were from New Jersey and brought shit harder than most at their time. New Jersey always had a way of slamming harder than others during the era. Definitely got way more into their live shows than others of the time. They came to Pittsburgh once in 2005 after this EP was released and I walked in late but started to mosh immediately. That's always cool.
They supposedly recorded another EP in 2007 but I've yet to find anything other than promo material online for it. Would LOVE to hear what they managed to follow this up with.
Considerably underrated mosh album. Ripped off Throwdown rather thoroughly. Definitely rocked camo guitar cabs. Their set at Hell Fest 2001 (with original vocalist Chris Alsip who later went on to join Suffocate Faster) was perhaps my first experience with the extreme mosh that is now commonplace at mosh gigs. Courage Crew was ahead of the curve on the mosh spectrum, that's for sure.
I also included their 3 song demo from 2001 which featured Alsip on vocals. Probably their best songs. They all got re-recorded for the full length ... one of the songs is a hidden track, however. There were also two songs that the band recorded previous to breaking up. One of them showed up online for a bit. I remember it being both awkward and awesome. They were recorded for a split that never happened with Suffocate Faster. Someone should send those to me.
I ran into their drummer at one of his new punk band's shows and brought up how hard One Nation Under brought the mosh back in the day. He was both down AND informed me that not only were there TWO unreleased tracks ... but there were THREE! He also said he doesn't even have copies, but would love to hear them. Rich Thurston, I'm calling you out ... send me these songs.
So here's the debut post from the MoshSpot blog on a pinnacle MOSH album I was fortunate enough to tour in support of for a few years.
In my eyes, a true mosh cornerstone. Touring around the country while out-moshing every city we played in ... shitting on bums ... beating psychotic girls with pillows ... using Jesus tattoos to allow us to perform at bogus christian venues ... throwing up & shitting out of moving van windows ... this is what mosh legends are made of.
Mosh call outs recorded on the original demo ... mosh call outs used as metronomes for live shows ... mosh call outs used as lyrics ... you name it. Our Struggle covers the entire mosh spectrum throughout its song structure. When learning the song, I remember writing down the structure as ... "get low/hyper active spinkick/breakdown/circle pit/jog-in-place/two-step/bounce mosh/two-step/circle pit/jog-in-place/breakdown/ultimate breakdown".
Speaking of jogging in place ... Too Pure To Die created it. I dare anyone to say otherwise.
I now present you with the best mosh album of all time ... WE ARE A WEAPON
Path To Misery has only ever fully stood against one thing: repression. Granted our lyrical stances have encompassed said repression in many of its varied forms, the underlying sense of rage has always been mutually rooted.
The very first set of lyrics written, Cheating Life, dealt with the repression of the earth. As potentially uneducated as it may be, Third World War was very critical of the repression of the people in the middle east. For The Innocent has served as a rallying anthem against the repression of animals. The very last song written for our previous full length, Inherent Incapability, even went as far to decry the personal repression of men and "womyn" alike.
While these subjects typically sat well with our unfortunately left-leaning fanbase at the time, apparently some of our newer lyrics from the upcoming EP fail to appease said in-crowd. Apparently repression is reprehensible when applied to previously-mentioned agendas yet both permissible and actually encouraged when applied to issues that, at least in their minds, apply to typically white, christian, conservative, American males.
Path To Misery always has and always will be a band that stands opposed to repression in ALL of its forms. On this upcoming EP we will extend this opposition on all fronts to include issues ranging from personal issues such as domestic abuse to worldwide issues such as the Disarmament of the peoples of the world ... and yes, that includes the repressed minorities and insurgents right alongside the "typically white, christian, conservative, American males".
As stated from day one, Path To Misery will never subscribe to any set of ideals or prescription of conformity. Identifying yourself as a liberal is every bit as idiotic and childish as the conservatism in which this "scene" so vehemently fights against despite its own obvious alienation and indoctrination which it both allows and nurtures in itself.
Don't know much about this band other than that well over a year ago this was sent to me by a reader who wanted to have the cassette ripped into Mp3 and for it to be shared with people. All I can say is sorry for the delay, brother ... but here it is. I make good on my word but sometimes when I'm at the mercy of a third party (studio, in this case) ... things get delayed.
This post has been a long time coming. Almost two years ago now I enthusiastically posted about finally tracking down the first two Cipher demos entitled Serial and Clockwork. This is on top of tracking down all of their OTHER fairly obscure releases over the past decade or so. Finally this fully-deserving band can have their full discography posted.
Cipher was one of the more unique bands I stumbled upon when I first delved into the world of hardcore. I believe it was 2001 when I first saw the band live at The Hangout in Edinboro, PA. At the time they were primarily playing material from the Protoculture EP (1999), Burnthalos 6" (2000) and their most recently released Antidote EP (2001). Despite only knowing the track "Reaching Higher States" from the music video I had somehow came across at the time ... the set definitely raised the creativity bar for what I wanted and expected out of hardcore at the time.
The intensity exuded by the band was what I always knew Cipher to be. Unbeknownst to me at the time, however, the band had several DIY releases under their belt already from the late 90s. Two demos (Serial and Clockwork, respectively) and a full length entitled Recognize which featured most of the demo tracks being re-worked and re-recorded. It took me several years to track these down but I eventually did (much to the chagrin of the band itself haha). While the earlier releases lack the perfection of the aforementioned EPs, they were still vicious in their own right. The songs played out a bit longer than perhaps they needed to, but these extended lengths only allowed for Moe to further illustrate his always poignant lyrical stances.
Speaking of which, despite the progressive and technical musicianship; Moe Mitchell, the band's vocalist, always managed to take a focal point in the band. While this was always the case, the lyrical content was truly pushed to the forefront of the band on their final two full lengths entitled Children Of God's Fire (2005) and The Joyous Collapse (2010). In an effort to further highlight the message of the band, Moe even would partake in self-sustaining spoken word tours in which he would have small groups of people gather for a night of socio-political conversation surrounding some of the topics covered on their upcoming releases (not to mention a sneak peek at some of the new tracks). The emphasis that the band put on teaching tolerance, respect and reverence towards each other and the world as a whole will never be matched.
Throughout all of the years of relentless touring and undeniable self-promotion, the band always considered Pittsburgh to be a home-away-from-home ... playing multiple years of the Sincerity Fest that I book annually. In fact, the band is nearly solely responsible for the fest even continuing after it's first (and failing) year. It was through the motivational and encouraging words of Moe and Danny that I decided to trudge forward to build the fest into the success that it is today. One of the cooler live videos I've found posted of the fest can be seen here as Moe shot the footage while performing.
Unfortunately, however, tragedy struck in the summer of 2011 when founding member and personal friend of mine, Daniel Bobis went missing while on vacation abroad with his wife. The incident received mainstream press coverage all across the country as efforts were made to search and rescue. Unfortunately the news came about that Danny's body was found washed ashore as he had apparently been a victim of a surfing accident. Danny was no amateur surfer and, in fact, had coordinated, coached and founded a surfing club for the students at his local high school. In return for all of his efforts to both the hardcore, surfing and general community at large, Danny Bobis Beach was named in his honor. His memory lives on strongly to this day through all of his efforts; both musically and personally.
The band's legacy lives on as well through the efforts of those who's minds were sparked through the works, actions, and efforts of the band. Danny was honored at the Long Island Hardcore Fest in 2012 with Moe joining Tripface on stage during their reunion set for a cover of Reaching Higher States. I'd post a video but that would be the third video of the same song in this post haha.
We remember the efforts of Cipher quite well here in both Pittsburgh and at the Path To Misery blog.
